Alternatively, on any platform, you can set the new password using the mysql client (but this approach is less secure):

1. Stop mysqld and restart it with the –skip-grant-tables option.
2. Connect to the mysqld server with this command: shell> mysql
3. Issue the following statements in the mysql client. Replace the password with the password that you want to use. mysql> UPDATE mysql.user SET Password=PASSWORD(‘MyNewPass’) -> WHERE User=’root’; mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

You should now be able to connect to MySQL as root using the new password.